"She was on the phone with her mother, she was brutally attacked while inside her home", said Sgt. Brandon Shearer with the Salt Lake Police Department. "While on the phone with her mother, [she] was violently attacked by an intruder".

Bagshaw's mother, who remains unidentified, immediately called a neighbor to check in on the teenager.

French was tracked down and arrested Wednesday in southeast Colorado.

She was found dead shortly afterward. An arrest warrant charging him with three counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor was issued Tuesday; he has not yet been charged in Bagshaw's death. "Our hearts and thoughts are with her", Shearer said. He said that "quite a bit of evidence" was "widely spread throughout the home and throughout the area".

French was known to the family, Shearer said, adding that he had a previous relationship with the victim and lived with her briefly. He was previously considered a person of interest.

Friend Talia Zamir, 15, said: 'She was incredibly smart and talented and she always got along with people around her. "And that's what makes everything so heartbreaking, honestly".

Sister-in-law Nichole Newman Cannon wrote: 'I will always remember the amusing jokes at the times I needed my head lifted up.

"She was really sweet", Gwendolyn Robinson, who works at Leatherby's, told Deseret News.

'You will be greatly missed by your siblings.

The person of interest is still at large and is considered to be armed and unsafe.

He is probably driving a camouflage-painted 1991 Daihatsu Rocky with Wyoming license plate #19-13974. A GoFundMe campaign has been set up for the family. The total is now approaching $9,000.

"At this point he is being held in Colorado until extradition can take place and he is brought back to Utah", Shearer said.